Saturday, January 28, 2017

There's nothing like conversing with friends over a glass of wine and
meeting other lovers of wine, but how about meeting the founder of
the #winelover community that gathers all those passionate about wine
from around the world? This interview is with Luiz Alberto, a local
winelover to the Boston area, whom is a wine educator and
communicator that has created an amazing community of winelovers.

I believe
you're Italian by blood. What part of Italy does your family
originate from?

My father’s side of the family
comes from the Veneto and my mother’s side from Lombardy.

What
originally got you into wine?

Well, this question
has 2 answers: 1) I got into liking to drink wine as a child. The
entire family would get together on Sundays for lunch and wine
was a big part of it. The adults would drink wine and we (the kids)
would drink what we thought was wine, but that actually was
a mixture of water (a lot of it!), sugar, and a tiny little bit of
wine.

2) I got into liking to learn about wine when I moved to
the US back in 1996. After going to a couple of wine stores and
finding out how many options were available, I decided that I needed
to learn about it. And then my life changed! :)

Being
founder of the #winelover community, what influenced you to start
this group? How large is it now?

Before I answer
your question, let me tell you what “#winelover" is.
#winelover is a strong, connected, and dynamic community that
expresses itself through the use of social media. The community
exists to promote cooperation and enjoyment among people who
love wine. Periodic hangouts throughout the world are organized for
the community to have the opportunity to get together in ‘real
life’. It’s been a little over 4 years since I started it and
this statement makes it very clear to me why we needed such
a community. We needed to get together to share wine! Anyway, at
first I thought it was going to be only me and my 7 friends… but it
become a huge thing and today we have over 21,000 members on our
group and it’s growing everyday.

I know you're
currently enrolled in the prestigious Masters of Wine program. Where
do you currently stand with the program?

I’ve
been in the Masters of Wine program since 2009. I sat the exam for
the first time last year in June and I didn’t pass. The
examinations are taking place again now but I’m not trying
this year. Basically my status is “on hold” at this point, but I
have to make a decision in September if I will go back to the
program or not. Too many things on my plate at the moment and
studying for the MW program may put my life out of balance.
Let’s see…

Tell me about the Italian Wine
Ambassador program and how that has benefited your career in wine?

"330 DOCs, 73 DOCGs and over
541 native grape varieties” (Source: D’Agata I. Native Wine
Grapes of Italy, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2014).
Yes, you read it right… and this (D’Agata’s book) was the
syllabus for our course to become Italian Wine Ambassadors. I studied
really hard and I was "top 5" of a class of 50 very
prepared students. Quite an honor, but hard to measure how it has
impacted my wine career. I know it has benefited me (I know
I learned a lot!), but people don’t really tell me why I’m
invited to be a speaker or to attend an important seminar.

When
it comes to the world of wines where do Italian wines rank for
you?

This question is very hard to answer as I have
many passions in the world of wine. However, if you count the number
of visits to a country for wine reasons as the criteria to
determine the ranking, then certainly Italy comes as number 1. I have
been to Italy dozens of times and I visited all their wine
regions with the exception of one: Sardinia. But this, hopefully,
will be fixed soon!

It may be hard to do, but what are
some of your favorite Italian grapes?

A
question that begs for an impossible answer! It would be easy to go
with the usual suspects and say that I love Sangiovese and
Nebbiolo (which I do!) but I would be unfair to so many others that I
don’t think I should even try… Do you remember how I started
this interview? Yes… 541 native grape varieties!!

What
regions/areas do you feel produce some of the best values for Italian
wines?

Value? Here’s one of its
definitions: "The extent to which a good or service is perceived
by its customer to meet his or her needs or wants, measured by
customer's willingness to pay for it. It commonly depends more on the
customer's perception of the worth of the product than on its
intrinsic value.” What does it mean? It means that a bottle of
Brunello di Montalcino at $50.00 can be a great value to a
consumer that praises that wine, while a bottle of Donnie (a DOC wine
from Calabria made from Gaglioppo with some blending of Greco nero
and Mantonico nero) that costs $5.00 seems not to be such a good
deal because you never heard of it, right? In other words, all
Italian wine regions have amazing values. You just need to trust
your own palate and be adventurous.

What role and
influence do you feel social media and wine bloggers have on the wine
industry?

I believe that wine and social media are
a great pairing. As much as the traditional wine media (e.g. Wine
Spectator) is still influential to consumers, more and more
people base their buying decisions on social media and wine bloggers
today. The result of this “change of the guard” is that the
role of some of the most influential bloggers is forcing brands to
become very creative to build interaction with their consumers
and, at the end of the day, generate sales. But it’s definitely not
only about famous names with big audiences. Social media has
enabled people to make their wine choices based on what their friends
liked (or didn’t like) and that they shared via Tweeter,
Facebook, or Instagram. And this influence will only grow in years to
come. The future is bright.

*Pictures were provided by Luiz Alberto. This article was originally published for my column, Uncorked Italy, in the former Bostoniano magazine.

Saturday, January 21, 2017

I'm honored
monthly to be invited by Snooth
to share a wine based on each month's theme. I'm joined by a very
talented group of wine bloggers, sommeliers, writers and
connoisseurs. The theme for December was aHoliday
Sparkling Bottle Pick List.

When I think of
sparkling wine in Italy I immediately gravitate toward Lombardy or
the Veneto with prosecco. I've written about Lombardy in the past
including a couple articles on Franciacorta. I've tried some
prosecco recently that I'll be sharing in an upcoming article, but my
selection for Snooth's list was the Barone
Pizzini Franciacorta Brut Animante NV (non vintage).

Franciacorta
is located along the shores of Lago Iseo. What makes
the sparkling wines of Franciacorta so unique? The sparkling
wines here are made in the classic method, or metodo classico.
This is the same way in which Champagne is produced. Franciacorta
became a DOCG in 1995 and at that point was separated from the still
wines labeled under the Terre di Franciacorta DOC. The primary
grapes used in producing a Franciacorta are chardonnay, pinot bianco
and pinot nero. The difference between this non-vintage and the
vintage wines of Franciacorta is that non-vintage must be aged at
least 18 months where vintage wines are aged a minimum of 30 months.

Barone Pizzini's
winery was established in 1870, but released it's first bottle of
Franciacorta in 1971. According to Barone Pizzini, the “Animante
was created to commemorate a long and pioneering journey that honors
Barone Pizzini's leadership in the organic evolution of
Franciacorta”. They are the “first organic grower and
winemaker in Franciacorta”. Animante stems from the word anima,
meaning soul, that represents the winery's respect for winemaking and
the land in which these wines are produced. The Barone Pizzini
Animante is produced from 25 vineyards all delivering a variety of
different characteristics that are blended together to produce a wine
that shows the “soul” of the land. It's comprised of 78%
chardonnay, 18% pinot nero and 4% pinot bianco.

Saturday, January 14, 2017

This week I'm back to joining the Wine Pairing Weekend group featuring new wines for the new year. When I had the
honor to take my first press trip in February 2015 to the Veneto I
was able to tack on a few extra days and explore some areas that I
hadn't been to yet, including the Trentino-Alto Adige wine region.
The train system in Italy makes it so easy to get around and travel
so I jumped on the train from Verona and headed about an hour and a
half north to the town of Trento. The excitement of exploration of a
new town with sights to see, food to taste and wine to try. I
previously wrote about a particular pairing, Canederli
and Muller Thurgau, that I experienced while resting from my
wanderings. I visited a local wine shop while in Trento
and wanted to make sure I brought back something I don't get to
experience to often in the states or a grape that I had never tried.
I chose a 2012 Vigna Braide Teroldego of the Teroldego Rotaliano DOC.

Concilio was
established back in 1860 by Angelo Grigolli, but didn't take on the
name Concilio until they partnered with Boschi & Gamberoni.
Later in 1990 ownership became shared by local vintners under the
brand Concilio. They produce about 600,000 cases annually on about
620 hectacres (1,530 acres).

The Teroldego
Rotaliano DOC was established in 1971 and as the name states,
teroldego is the primary red grape. It takes its name from the vine
training method in which the grape uses, tirelle or wire harnesses.
It's also been thought to have derived from the gold of Tyrol known
as Tiroler Gold. Regardless of how the name was derived, this is a
grape that you must try. It produces wines that are rich in fruit,
full bodied and it's high acidity make it a very versatile wine to
pair with a variety of dishes.This 2012 Concilio Vigna Braide Teroldego was a deep ruby red with hints of purple. On the nose was rich dark fruit of blackberry and blackcherry. It was rather high in acid upon opening, but mellowed out with some time. Dry, medium body with a silky mouthfeel. Low on tannins with a lengthy finish. ABV 13%. SRP $19.

Food pairing with TeroldegoI chose to pair
this teroldego with spaghetti alla carbonara. Who doesn't love
pasta?! I figured the acidity of the wine would match well with the
creaminess of the dish and I was right. With a baby now I'm always
looking for easy meals to prepare and this was very simple to cook
up. While you're prepping the sauce for the pasta, start to boil
your water for the pasta adding salt, but make sure once your pasta
is “al dente” that you reserve about a cup of the pasta water.
The sauce consists of sauteing some oil and garlic in a pan with your
choice of either pancetta, guanciale or bacon. Cook until crispy, but
not overdone. On the side mix a couple eggs with about a cup of
grated cheese (I chose pecorino romano). Once the pasta is done, add
immediately to the saute pan while hot and mix with the egg and
cheese blend along with some of the hot pasta water. Top off with
some parsley and viola!

Wait! There's more! Check out my fellow wine and food pairing friends and what's new to them this new years.

Wine Predator will write about New Year, New Wine: New Jersey?A Day in the Life on the Farm is trying New Wine for a New YearGrape Experiences is sharing Try Something New: Moroccan Wine with Lamb TagineCulinary Adventures with Camilla will post Young Nation, Ancient Vines in Croatia: Pairing Crni Rižoto + Dingac Vinarija’s Peljesac A Palatable Pastime is serving Duck Ragout with Creamy PolentaL'occasion will share about The Wines of Red MountainENOFYLZ Wine Blog will serve Slow Cooker Enchilada Quinoa and MencíaFoodwineclick will try Something Old, Something New - Flank Steak & Douro RedRockin Red Blog is Journeying into a Glass of the UnknownPull That Cork will post Loire Valley Red Meets Onion and Bacon Tart: When Old Becomes NewThe Swirling Dervish will pair Lacrima di Morro d'Alba and Broccoli Rabe LasagnaTasting Pour is serving up Lamb Stew and Wine from LebanonCooking Chat is pairing Pork Tenderloin with Onions and Canary Island WineYou can join the conversation about new wine and food pairings to go with it! Our live #winePW Twitter Chat will take place this Saturday, January 14, at 11 a.m. Eastern Time. Just tune into the #winePW hashtag between 11 and noon ET that day. Check out past and upcoming Wine Pairing Weekend events here.Don't miss an Italian wine blog ~ Subscribe

Saturday, January 7, 2017

This month our
Italian Food, Wine & Travel group (#ItalianFWT) explores
coastal regions in Italy. Much of Italy's regions are
bordering water so it's easy to find a region to talk about today.
That's what makes Italy so unique in that you can travel to many a
region, north to south, and be able to experience mountains, beaches
and seas and the inland plains. According to wikipedia, Italy has
over 4,700 miles of coastline touching the Tyrrhenian, Adriatic and
Ionian Seas.

Puglia, located on
the heel of the boot, is one of these regions with a long coastline
touching the Adriatic Sea. It seems to have been the hot spot lately
in terms of travel. I've seen many of folks venturing there and it
has even peaked my interest as well for my next journey overseas to
Italy when it happens. One can only wish, but with a 6 month old
there are no promises yet.

About Leone de Castris

I recently tasted
a wine from the Leone de Castris winery located in Puglia,
specifically a village in Salento known as Salice Salentino. Leone
de Castriswas founded in 1665 when Duke Oronzo discovered
the terroir in Salento and sold his property in Spain to get himself
grounded in Puglia. The winery had always sold off it's grapes from
the beginning of the 19th century until they began to
bottle their own in 1925. The winery is actually best known for
their rose' known as Five Roses, but they produce an array of wines
including the 2013 Maiana Rosso I'm sharing today. The winery
produces about 2.5 million bottles annually.

Negroamaro
is a native grape of Puglia that is deep in color with good weight,
rich fruit and can have medium tannins. The name, negroamaro, has
origins are tied to both the Latins and Greeks. You'll find this
grape primarily produced within the Salice Salentino DOC. There are
some great values out there as with many Italian wines, but not all
are quality produced wines so ask for assistance when picking out a
bottle so you can taste the best.

I tasted the 2013
Leone de Castris Maiana Salice Salentino Rosso DOC that is made of
90% negroamaro and 10% malvasia nera. It's fermented in stainless
and aged in large oak for 6 months. I loved the ripe dark fruits and
found it to be rather well balanced with acidity. Full bodied. A
great value. I actually enjoyed it with a slight chill. SRP $12-14.
ABV 13.5%.

More with our ItalianFWT groupHere's a preview of what's to come this Saturday January 7th. Join us for a live Twitter chat at #ItalianFWT 11am Est about Coastal White and Red Wines, Foods and Travel around Italy's long coastline. If you'd like to be part of the group there is still time. Email directly at susannah@vignetocommunications.com.